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Interview: Yifat Kasai on Ethiopians in Petach Tikva Schools

September 7, 2011 by 37 Comments
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Update: I heard on the radio at around 1 PM today that the Chabad girls' school, Or Chaya, has refused to accept 5 Ethiopian students. Or Chaya is part of the state religious system. The education ministry said that sanctions will be taken. I met Yifat Kasai two years ago, when her eldest son entered first grade at my children's state-religious elementary school. In this interview, she graciously shares her experience making aliyah, her job helping Ethiopian teenagers adjust to Israeli schools, and her thoughts on a Petach Tikva school that has been in the news. Tell me about your aliyah. I made aliyah from Ethiopia to Beersheva in 1984, when I was six years old. I was the seventh of … [Read more...]

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Me, Me, Me

May 30, 2010 by 6 Comments
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Ilana-Davita interviewed me at her blog, as part of a series on Israeli bloggers. At least one reader caught my name in the current issue of Parents Magazine in an article on parenting around the world.  Thank you to the many readers who contributed to the lively discussion on What Defines Israeli Parenting, one of the best discussions on this site. The reporter  mentioned the "quiet hour" Between Two and Four, along with Robin's comment about pressure to have at least three children. The article will go online eventually. By the way Robin is in a contest; please vote for Robin's photography here, no registration required. My review of Mitzvah Girls, by Ayala Fader, will be … [Read more...]

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Exclusive Interview with a Former Kannai, Part II: The Community

June 5, 2009 by 2 Comments

This is Part II of an interview with Rabbi Moshe Yossef, a former kannai who lived in the anti-Zionist community in Jerusalem for many years. In Part I, he tells of his personal experiences. Below he responds to  questions about the kannai community. How do people survive economically without governmental benefits? Are there outside donations? The bulk of the people in these communities, especially here in Jerusalem, live very, very simply. Their communal institutions, which accept no money from the State of Israel, receive a small amount of support from the Satmar Hasidic group in the USA.  There are still kannaim living here without having accepted Israeli citizenship.  They do … [Read more...]

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Exclusive: Interview with a Former Kannai, Part I

June 4, 2009 by 5 Comments

In my series on Pashkevilim, I gave highlights of a lecture about the community of anti-Zionist kannaim, or  zealots, in Jerusalem. @Jewnet invited me to interview her husband Moshe Yossef, a former kannai,  for an insider's view. I've divided the interview into two parts.  Part I is about Rabbi Moshe Yossef himself and his experiences. In Part II, he answers general questions about the community. My questions are in bold, and Rabbi Yossef's answers are in blue. What is your Jewish background? Rabbi Yossef responds: I was born into a traditional, modern, orthodox background. At the age of eighteen I went in search of something more meaningful to me, and found it here in … [Read more...]

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New Jewish Book for Pre-Teens: Review and Interview

March 30, 2009 by 2 Comments

An interview with the author appears below. Chaya Rosen is a young woman living in Israel. She recently published Backstage with CBC: The Chaverim Boys Choir Live (Targum Press), a book for religious preteens. Each chapter of Chaverim describes a member of the fictional choir, the boy's family situation and a personal challenge he encounters: One is under pressure to help his mother with his younger siblings, one loses his grandfather, and another recognizes an unpleasant truth about himself. Rosen describes the feelings of the children as each one learns his lesson, and I think children will identify with them. The central character, choirmaster Daniel, holds the book together. But … [Read more...]

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Interview: A Christian Mother in Israel

September 6, 2008 by 16 Comments

Melissa, originally from England, lives in Nazareth with her Christian-Arab husband and their six children. She graciously answered my questions by email. Melissa, where were you born? I grew up in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, a small city about 40 minutes drive north of London. What did you know about Israel when you were growing up? I really knew very little. I knew that there were kibbutzim in Israel and was always fascinated by them. I vaguely remember hearing about unrest in the Middle East on the news but like most people in England, I knew little about the political situation. How did you meet your husband? My first experience of Israel was as a volunteer on a kibbutz. I … [Read more...]

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Teens, Sex and Eating Disorders: An Interview with the Therapy Doc

March 1, 2008 by 10 Comments

Never one to turn down free professional advice, I didn't hesitate when blogger Therapy Doc suggested an interview here on my blog. Coincidentally, while "visiting" my blog TD and her husband are in Israel visiting their son in yeshiva; see here (the end of the post) and here. Feel free to leave questions for Therapy Doc in the comments. My own questions are in bold. How did you manage the demands of work vs. family when your children were small? How did I juggle work and family? A lot didn't get done. My kids would probably say I put patients first, and that's true. My kids seemed okay, but my patients did not. But it's not so simple. Both require quite a bit of attention. I … [Read more...]

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New Book on Babies and Sleep

March 28, 2007 by 27 Comments

I have written quite a few posts on the benefits of cosleeping and the negative effects of allowing babies to cry. James McKenna, PhD., probably the foremost researcher on the topic of mother-infant cosleeping, has written Sleeping with Your Baby: A Parent's Guide to Co-Sleeping. In this interview from the publisher, Platypus Media, McKenna addresses the most common criticisms of cosleeping. Cosleeping is safe (if practiced correctly) and does not lead to emotional dependence. McKenna believes that the decision to cosleep or not lies with individual families, not the medical establishment. I was going to post only excerpts, but in the end I couldn't leave anything out! I believe McKenna … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Babies, Breastfeeding, Interviews, Parenting, Sleep

Help for Parents of Teenagers: Interview with Rabbi Daniel Schonbuch

January 31, 2007 by 10 Comments

Today we'll give babies and toddlers a rest and look at how to help our teens navigate adolescence. I've learned from personal experience that nagging and power struggles don't work. Even if such tactics result in the desired behavior, they our effectiveness in guiding teens through these critical years. Please welcome Rabbi Daniel Schonbuch, author of At Risk: Never Beyond Reach, and the Executive Director of Shalom Task Force, an organization dealing with domestic abuse and marriage education. If you have questions about your own teenager, you can visit his blog, At Risk Advice, where Rabbi Schonbuch answers parents' questions. Mother in Israel: Our society commonly views … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Interviews, Parenting, Teenagers

Looking Forward to Vayikra: An Interview with the Maggid

January 17, 2007 by 5 Comments

An entertaining new player entered the Jewish blogosphere last Yom Kippur. The Maggid of Bergenfeld combines Torah, humor and mussar and aims to teach the lessons of each parsha and holiday through contemporary stories. I'm sure I'm not the only one who looks forward to each weekly drash. I remember Larry's slapstick humor and creativity from when we went to college together. We even co-wrote a skit that was performed for the Orthodox Jewish student group. He claims not to remember, but I thought it was pretty good. Here is the Maggid's own story.What gave you the idea to start a blog?I had been reading Dave Bogner's blog Treppenwitz since he made Aliyah, and I had been writing down stories … [Read more...]

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